This is such a hard question for someone who reads so broadly and loves way too many things lol. I don’t think anyone’s going to be surprised when I pick more than one book for an answer but I’ve narrowed it down to three with an honorary fourth book. I’m not going to go into them too much because I talk about them quite a bit in this post lol.
The books that really stood out to me this year include:
The Traitor Queen – Action packed, slow burn romance, warring kingdoms, politics, war, a well executed traveling plot line, and so much explosive set up for the next books in this series!
The Rakess – A historical romance featuring a headstrong woman and a man entering into a relationship that tests them both. Such a powerful female mc who’s fighting a war against society and their blatant desire to strip away rights from women by doing the absolute “worst” society expects from a woman.
Lore – Lara Croft level action, scary Ancient Greek Gods, and a fight to death amongst Greek Gods and their devout civilians.
The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen
This book upped the ante for this series and I think that I’ll be holding this book up as a marker for what an amazing second book in a series should be. I thought the first book was amazing but this one was even better. I like how things switched in this book and how we get to see Lara try to win over Aren and follow them on their journey to save their kingdoms. It was so gripping. This book had the most intoxicating combination of action, politics, and romance. This book also centered around a traveling plot line and almost all the traveling/journey plot lines I’ve read previously were so slow and dragged the plot out but Jensen’s is the exact opposite. Reading this book felt like watching an action movie. The tension between Lara and Aren rubbed my heart raw and my god, every single feeling, whether it was hatred, desire, fear, or despair, it was all so very tangible. I think it’s really unfair to solely promote this book as a fantasy romance because it’s so much more than that! Daneille L. Jensens’ writing is so amazing and gripping and the politics and world building is stellar and completely underrated.
The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
This book has been getting a lot of buzz recently and it sounds like an amazing tale. From my knowledge, this story follows two people, who over the course of their lives fell in and love and get separated from each other. I think there’s a couple decades worth of years between when they lost touch with each other and met up again. Because of the narrative of the story and how it follows characters over a course of lifetime, many people have referred to this book as something comparable to “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” I personally love books that follow a narrative like that because if done right, it’s a book that’ll grip you from the beginning to the end. The plot sounds slow, beautiful, rich with history and intrigue and I can’t wait to sit down and dive right into it.
The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
I was a HUGE fan of “The Bride Test” by Helen Hoang and when I found out that the next book in her series, is going to be about Kai’s cousin, I got super excited. He played a big role towards the end of the book and he came off so selfless and sweet. Physically, he seems like a big intimidating guy but the way he came through for the family in the end of the second book, he gave off major inner teddy bear vibes.
Isn’t it Romantic by Lyssa Kay Adams
The ending of book three in the series was amazingly dramatic and ridiculous. The Russian in this series is such a mysterious character and his entire role in the series so far has been to serve solely a comedic relief. He was definitely more involved in book three and we got to see a bit more of him and learn about his past in that book. Even to the Bromance Bookclub, the Russian remains quite a bit of a mystery and who his mysterious “wife” is. I can’t wait to get my hands on the third book and read more about the Russian in a romantic way.
The Bridge Kingdom Untitled # 3 by Danielle L. Jensen
If I haven’t talked about it enough, I love The Bridge Kingdom series. This series is so captivating, intense, action packed, and has atmospheric writing and politics. Unfortunately, the audiobooks got published first and I think six month’s afterwards, the hard copy would be available for borrowing/purchasing. The first two books in the series follow Lara and Aren. While we’re no longer following the direct POV of these characters, the plot is very much not close to finishing. The second book in the series literally ending was politically explosive, to say the least. I’m just so excited and impatient to find out what’s going to happen in the next couple of books and and see what’s going to play out in all these warring kingdoms.
Highlander Most Wanted by Maya Banks
I fell in love with the first book in this series, “Never Seduce a Scott”. It was such a refreshing historical romance book and it was my first Highlander romance. I was so excited to read the second book and I had incredibly high expectations of it. In fact, I remembered in my review of this book, I specifically said that this book was a refreshing historical romance because it didn’t follow the status quo of other historical romances with a similar recycled plot. Instead, it was entertaining from start to finish. Ironically, the second book in this series did the exact opposite. So many plot devices used in the first book were literally repeated almost entirely in this one.. A big part of the first book was how our mc fought against the pre-conceptions of her rival clans and worked hard to get them to accept her. The clan she married into acted out against her, emotionally and physically. The second book did the same thing and it got a bit tiring to read it again. Reading this book right after having such a great experience with the first one, made this reading experience even more disappointing.
Read my review of “Never Seduce a Scott”, the first book in this series: here
Lore by Alexandra Bracken
I’m so glad that the first book I read this year was Lore. This book kicked ass. This book is if Lara Croft meets Percy Jackson. The introduction into the book is our girl, Lore, deep in the throws of an underground fight which gives you the perfect idea of the tone of this book. This book was so fast paced and I genuinely loved the incorporation of Greek mythology into the story. The Ancient God’s we get to meet in this book, whether it’s Athena, Poseidon, Zeus, whoever, act truly like Gods. In Percy Jackson, they seem approachable while being powerful. In this book, they’re scary . The way these Ancient Gods are described are other worldly, too big for the current world, and mysterious in a way that’s intriguing yet terrifying. It’s action packed, gripping, and you can’t put it down.
The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham
I can’t not mention “The Rakess”. There’s definitely trigger warnings for “Lore” but boy oh boy, this book has a ton as well. So if you’re tw/cw’s include loss of a child, pregnancy problems, alcoholism, you may want to be aware of them before going into this book. This book didn’t shy away from talking about women’s rights at all and it flipped so many gender stereotypes in a way that it was refreshing, bold, and powerful.
Scarlett Peckham
Scarlett Peckham. I recently read “The Rakess” and I’m really excited to see what she comes out with in the future. When talking about equality and the general fight for women’s rights, the past few historical romances I’ve read did a surface level job at it. This author’s exploration into these topics is so aggressive, it rubs you raw and really ignites that fire in you when you read about these time periods where basic rights weren’t equal to everyone.
I reread SOC this year so Kaz Brekker obviously, Aren from The Bridge Kingdom series, and I know there’s others but I can’t think of any right now lol.
Serapio from Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The author’s writing really, really, came to it’s peak whenever we had a Serapio POV chapter. His character is full of so much depth. The book’s first pages were an introduction to his beginning and the last pages were an introduction to his rise. The imagery of his darkness from everyone around him as well as his own exploration into who he is and what his purpose is was so terrifying yet heartbreaking. He’s such an unforgettable character and the author made it really hard not to fall in love with him as she imbued us with the unimaginable trauma he’s gone through as a child in honor of the quest he’s destined to complete as well as his innocent inner ramblings and curiosities as he navigates the world in forever solitude as the only one of his kind and the only one on his mission. That was a really long sentence to basically say that he’s equally terrifying as he is a cinnamon roll and it’s a wonderful combination, I highly recommend you find out yourself and read about him.
Read my review on this book: here
This is a hard question to answer because honestly, what book haven’t I cried over lol? For any movie or book, especially book, I almost always am happy crying or just straight-out bawling all the sad feelings out.
The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen
I’ve mentioned it before but this book just rubbed me raw lol. Watching Lara struggle to undo everything and prove to herself and Aren that she’s more than what she was in the first book was so moving. Watching these two struggle to put aside their desires and wants for the better of their people made me cry so hard. There was this one scene towards the end of the book that just broke me.
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Reading about a character you see yourself in is always a bit hard to process, especially when that character’s a sketch of everything you’re vulnerable about. I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about it but if you don’t know by now, I’m a sucker for characters who deal with parental expectations. It’s very rare when I don’t cry for a character dealing with situations like that so it’s no surprise that I was bawling for Eve Brown. This book had me shedding a couple of tears over seeing Eve struggle with doing what she wants without her family dragging her down.
I did reread “Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Dating” so we’re going to pretend I didn’t so I can include a new book as answer for this question because there’s never been a time when Josh and Hazel hasn’t made me laugh and feel all the warm, cozy feelings.
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Talia Hibbert never fails to disappointment in bringing a smile to my face. This book was definitely not disappointing in providing the most hilarious yet wholesome scenes as we see two people navigate through both their romantic and professional lives working in a cozy Bed and Breakfast. There were people who got run over, accidentally of course, and some pretty funny misunderstandings.
Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis
Honestly, middle grade books are winning all the pretty cover competitions out there. They’re just so aesthetically pleasing and soft yet intriguing. They check off all the check boxes in whatever standard my heart has for appealing book covers. This year, the middle grade book that I’ve bought is “Wildwood”. All I know about it is it’s about two siblings solving a mystery and the cover, deckled pages drew me into buying it. And to my surprise, this book is even more beautiful than what I thought it already was because it has the most amazing sketches inside the book. It’s gorgeous.
Neon Gods by Katee Robert
I have so many books I want to get to by the end of the year. I’m planning to make a new post all about it in the future but for now, the book that’s sitting on the top of my TBR is “Neon Gods”. I know absolutely nothing about this book other than it’s a Hades and Persephone retelling and boy oh boy, am I excited to pick it up. Hades and Persophene are my favorite mythological couple and their story is gripping and I cannot wait to see what this book has in store for me. I also want to pick this book up because I’ve been hearing this author’s name everywhere and I’m interested to see if I like their writing style and romances.
I’ve heard such good things about Lore! Thanks for the content warnings on The Rakess, that’s useful to know. And yes, Wildwood is simply stunning!
I hope you enjoy Lore, it was a bit confusing in the beginning, but things started to make more sense the longer I stuck with the book! AN you’re welcome 🙂
[…] So far, I’ve got out a post on some of my midyear reading thoughts which you can read in midyear book freak out tag. Today, I want to share with you how I’ve been using my bullet journal the past six months […]
[…] Midyear Book Freakout Tag […]